


enormously embarrassing

by clickingkeyboards



Series: filling in the blanks [1]
Category: High Class Homos (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-02-28 17:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: “I’m sure whatever you’re looking at isn’t that interesting! Get back to sparring!”How exactly did Prince August and Commander Percival first meet? In typical fashion, it began with Percival utterly embarrassing himself.“Ah... hello, Prince August.”Set after part one.





	enormously embarrassing

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an ongoing series where I write in missing moments from the High-Class Homos webcomic. Let me know which moments you would like me to write!
> 
> Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought.

“Is this tour necessary, Sapphia?” August asked with a reproachful note to his voice. He regarded his best friend with weary eyes and a sour expression and kicked at her prosthetic with aching feet. Although he was doing his level best to sound strict and irritated, his cadence was odd and unnatural. He attempted to imitate the prim and clipped way his best friend spoke but there was a drawl behind the words that made it inauthentic.

Irritation was the correct thing to be feeling, if only in his own humble opinion. He had been curled-up catlike and reading in his bedroom with Sapphia mock-fainting at his feet when he showed her the art of beautiful princesses littered throughout the pages of the book, and it was things such as that which made him smile. However, his father had complained about his anti-social son and shooed the pair outside into the kingdom.

August scoffed once they were out of earshot. “You would think he is a saint, how he thinks me should take his word as gospel. My father acts if people were more sociable in a time before fantasy books! They read boring heterosexual romances, before that it was religious texts, before that they embroidered, and before that, they banged rocks together to make pointed rocks they bashed other stuff with the make more useful stuff.”

Sapphia nodded sagely, amused by August’s utter frustration at being torn away from his precious books. “People have been sitting inside and ignoring each other for as long as there have been buildings.”

However, what had happened had happened: his father had forced him out of his bedroom and tasked with protecting Sapphia from the horrors of a less rule-abiding kingdom than her own and there wasn’t much anybody could do about that.

It was enjoyable. His best friend was lovely and she could brighten up any day with her hilarious fake-swoons over boys people told her she should handsome, but she insisted upon making the job of showing her around as difficult as possible for him. For the past three hours, she had been barrelling about the kingdom in her buffeting silk dress. The lack of rules enraptured the princess. August was sure that Sapphia’s charming personality would have him swept off his feet long ago if he wasn’t a raging homosexual.

He was getting worried she would tear it while determined to work her way into some small dusty spaces not meant to house human beings; certainly not human beings with voluminous white dresses and pink hair she had styled with meticulous care. As the dress was woven in a very specific pattern found only in Sapphia’s kingdom, August dreaded the conversation he would have with his father before sending it off to be repaired. “I understand that you would like to look about the kingdom but I don’t see the necessity of a tour.”

Sapphia sighed. August was lovely but he could be terribly slow and irritating sometimes. Demanding without words that they keep walking, she looped an arm through his. Much to her delight, August obliged her wishes.

“What is it you are so intent on seeing, Saph?” he asked as they walked down another cobbled passageway. He sounded confused; it wasn’t surprising Sapphia had confused him, as it was his permanent state of being. “If you would like a tour, I can assign you a tour guide who will do the job far better than I.”

With an impatient huff, Sapphia moved her hand from August’s arm to his hand, squeezing it. “That’s not what I want to know about, August!” she said as he led them into an empty courtyard, lined with blooming blossom trees leaking a flurry of petals into the air about them. It was a beautiful sight to behold and Sapphia fell in love with it in an instant. “I want to know which parts of the kingdom are special to you! Not a tour that any stuffy royal could give me.”

Since the day they met, Sapphia had been dying to know all there was to know about her best friend and platonic soulmate. What made August tick was a mystery: other than cute boys. That was a given: he passed an inordinate amount of time thinking on that subject.

She could never tell what he was thinking, either. Boys were so expressionless. His facial expressions fluctuated between a small group of different things: mildly curious, sort-of disturbed, I-am-reading-do-not-disturb-me-or-it-will-be-the-last-thing-you-ever-do, slightly embarrassed, put-out, upset, and there-is-a-cute-boy. He face was expressive and fit for every moment but August almost had to learn new expressions when confronted with new situations or else he wouldn’t function. He would learn in a fashion that was painstakingly slow.

In conclusion: girls were the superior sex to be attracted to and boys were ridiculous and stupid, except August because he was lovely if a tad emotionless.

August smiled. “We are in the right place to learn about my childhood, it seems. When I was younger, my mother would tell me I would share my first dance with my future wife here. As you know, the so-called ‘fair-sex’ never attracted my attention, so I imagined dancing with my best friend here. I curated an entire picture in my mind. As you can imagine-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Sapphia had yanked him towards her by one arm, dragging him about the courtyard in a rowdy and upbeat waltz. With a laugh, she forced him into following her lead, saying the beat aloud instead of music to dance to.

“You’re ridiculous!” he laughed breathlessly as Sapphia dipped him. “Goodness, I don’t suppose there’s another princess quite like you!”

In retaliation, she dropped him into the blossoms on the ground. With an indignant noise, he picked himself up and attempted to brush off the petals that had stuck themselves to his cloak rather stubbornly. “You are an insufferable dolt, Sapphia.” 

“I love you too, you insufferable dolt,” she replied, gesturing for him to shut up before he could say much else. Something had caught her attention and it gave her an idea: for ages, she had wanted to observe the extent of August’s inability to function around so-called attractive young men.

The clashing of weapons, accompanied by indistinct grunts of exertion, could be heard in the distance. “Knights training?” she questioned. It would sound innocent enough: if you didn’t know her, of course.

August nodded. Sapphia could tell that he was absently wondering where this was leading.

“Well, let’s go and watch them!”

August frowned. “Why? All they are doing is sparring. I’ve watched it a hundred times, it’s nothing too curious.”

“Because there will be a lot of ‘handsome’ young men gathered in one place,” she replied, speaking slowly so it would penetrate his apparently thick skull. 

He frowned. “You don’t like men.”

“However, you do. I spent two hours flirting with the maids this morning because you let me, I should repay the favour. Got your eye on any of them so far?”

August fixed her with his most withering glare. Ah, Sapphia realised, she had forgotten   _that_ expression.

* * *

“What on earth are you looking at?!” one knight bellowed in a sharp tone of warning. It was a startling sound, one which boomed around the courtyard. The yell sliced through the air and drowned out the other knights, who were speaking in hushed tones and casting furtive glances towards the entrance to the courtyard. The authoritative tone had enough power amping the knights to quash the whispers rising in volume around the courtyard as more people noticed the unexpected visitors. Each pair of eyes averted their gaze from the prince and the visiting princess and got back to work. 

August searched for the source of the voice. When he found the person, he was somewhere beyond pleased: the person it belonged to was handsome, even from the diminished side-profile August could see. He was tall, with chocolate-coloured curls and different armour that set him apart from the rest as the commander.

 

“I’m sure whatever you’re looking at isn’t that interesting! Get back to sparring!” the voice snapped again as eyes drifted back to whatever it was behind him.

Lucas, who was breathing hard on the ground after being knocked down, raised an eyebrow to let Percival knew he was about to embarrass himself, was embarrassing himself or already had embarrassed himself. “Commander Percival, turn around,” he began, pointing over his shoulder. “Prince August is standing right there and can hear every single word.”

“Fuck!” Percival blurted, whipping around to glimpse the young man in question, However, in typical Percy fashion, the action didn’t go as planned. In his mind’s eye, it happened in slow motion. The sword slipped from his hand and flew across the courtyard with considerable force and pinpoint accuracy towards what he had been turning towards: towards Prince August’s face.

“Percy!” Lucas yelled, gripping his shoulder. It was unclear whether it was a gesture of punishment for throwing his sword like a frisbee at the crown prince, silent support in the form of slight pressure on his shoulder, or a subtle nudge for him to ‘leave at once for his own safety’.

“August!” Sapphia shrieked, gripping his bicep and tearing him towards her, out of the way of the projectile. As she pulled his arm, the two of them toppled to the ground in a heap of expensive royal fabrics and decided not-royal swearing. At least, that's what they thought would happen. Something pulled August back, tugging his cloak around his neck far too tight for comfort. He fumbled his way to his feet to find that his favourite red cloak had the offending projectile pinning it to the wall. With a bemused look on his face, he wrenched the sword out of the wall and handed it to Sapphia, unclasping his cloak from around his neck and folding it over his forearm.

“Who was that?!” Sapphia yelled, struggling to her feet. With a sigh, she noted that it her dress was streaked with dirt. 

“Commander Percival!”

“It was Percy!”

“Percival!”

“Perce did it!”

Each knight gravitated away from the brunet August has been eyeing earlier, Sapphia noticed, allowing August a clear path towards him. All the knights except a blue-haired older knight with a round face, hard eyes and a protective stance.

“Ah… hello, Prince August.”

 August raised an eyebrow.

“I am so sorry, Your Highness!” he blustered, taking several steps backwards with his hands over his mouth.

“I have a feeling that keeping a grip in your sword is fairly high on the list of rules,” August commented as he handed the sword back to the stunned commander. “However, I couldn’t fight nearly as well as you do so I cannot judge.”

“You were… watching me?” the commander squeaked, voice leaping at least an octave. His face flaming red, he gestured to the other knights to get back to their training at once.

“You were fascinating,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “As I’m sure you know, I’m Prince August. What’s your name?”

“Commander Percival, sir! It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He stuck out a hand eagerly, and he shook it firmly.

“As it is to meet you,” August replied, smooth-talking although a blotchy red blush had saturated his skin embarrassingly fast, starting along his collarbone and creeping up his neck to stain his cheeks. “When were you promoted?”

“Only a week ago, Your Highness!” Percival replied earnestly. “It’s been strange but very exciting! I love it. Really, I do.”

The excitable nature of the young commander made August feel fuzzy from his head to his toes. He was so sweet, relentlessly bubbly and impossibly bright.

“The youngest commander in history!” Lucas yelled from where he was sparring with one of the older knights.

“Shut up, Lucas!” With an awkward smile, he turned back to August. “I’m allowed to insult him. He’s my sparring partner, and he’s a pain in the ass.”

“Oh, nobody is all that bad,” August replied airily. “I’m sure you keep them in check.”

“I do my best, Your Highness!” he said, nodding several times in quick succession.

“You’re the youngest commander in history?” he noted, finally processing what the blue-haired knight had yelled. “That’s quite the achievement, Commander Percival!”

“I’m nothing special, Your Highness! But nobody ever lets up on that so I’ll accept the compliment. 

“I’m glad you will.” August set a hand on Percival’s shoulder and squeezed it in comfort and reassurance. “I’m sure I’ll see you around the kingdom, Commander?”

“Now you‘ve said it, I hope so, Your Highness! You aren’t stuffy, some other royals are.” Percival’s brutal honesty was emerging again but, this time, he was embarrassed by it. For some inexplicable reason, he felt himself flush and become flustered around the smooth-talking prince, especially when his light and easy touches fluttered over Percy’s skin.

“I know, it’s dull even for me. When do you next train?” he asked, and instantly slammed his mouth shut after saying it. Now _that_ was too forward, even for a royal.

“Tomorrow morning, bright and early!” Percival explained, beaming from ear to ear. “Why?”

“Perhaps I could come down to watch? I am forever reading about handsome - I mean, hardworking knights in storybooks, I would be interested to see training in action.” _That_ was quite the slip-up. Luckily, Percival’s thoughts seemed to be running a mile too fast to process the brutal honesty. It was adorable, how he bounced around as he spoke, his curls shake every which way and his eyes lit up by the sun. His front teeth were slightly crooked, framed by smooth and dark lips. August dragged his eyes away from his lips before he could fantasise any further.

“Well! That’s… that’s certainly something!” He beamed, looking over the moon. “I’d like that very much, Your Highness. Perhaps it will _motivate Lucas to get his blue-haired ass out of bed at a reasonable hour_!” He turned and very pointedly directed those words towards the blue-haired knight, who was slumped to the side and drinking what definitely wasn’t water out of a cut-glass bottle. August politely pretended not to notice.

“Go suck a fish head, Percy!” he yelled back.

August chuckled, turning Percival’s attention back to him. “We all sleep in sometimes, even princes. I will see you ‘bright and early’ tomorrow?”

“Bright and early, Your Highness!” he echoed, bowing deep and quick before adjusting his chain mail and dashing back to sparring with Lucas.

Sapphia was standing in the archway of the courtyard and looking amused as August walked over. “What was what about not having a crush, August?”

“Fuck off, Sapphia!”

Gasps could distinctly be heard from the knights still listening in.

* * *

Lucas breathed a deep sigh. All the signs were there: the embarrassment, the fidgeting, the eagerness to please, the dilated pupils, and the ridiculous amount of compliments (even for Percival, who understood near to nothing of social cues and etiquette). He shook his head. Percival would figure it out one day. And that day would be glorious.


End file.
